Milestone: Happy Blogversary.

It has been one year since I started this blog:  A Blogaversary, or a Blog Birthday.  What a year!  I wanted to take a moment and celebrate the conversation and connection that we have made together.  Birthdays and Anniversaries are interesting rituals, worth investigating for a moment.

Birthdays were significant in ancient cultures who saw astrology as a force that guided reality and shaped the human condition.  Although we struggle in life  to create the reality we enjoy, many, especially in ancient cultures, felt dis-empowered to affect their lot in life.  Nature overwhelmed them and humanity felt they live at the mercy of unknown forces. Rather than seeing fault in themselves and their inability to effect changes, they found fault in the stars — an abstract set of forces that must be at the heart of good or bad luck.  The day you were born stamped you with certain advantages and fated your destiny.  Every year on that day was a significant omen of your fate.  A ritual grew to honor that day.

Don’t think that birthdays no longer hold fatalistic  meaning in the modern age.  Studies show that birth month is an important factor in the success of many young aspiring athletes.  Cutoff dates count, and careful planning on the part of parents can make or break the chances to “make the team” for some professional-minded athletic teenagers.  But, putting that case aside, most of us view birthdays simply as a ritual to celebrate us; our existence, not our fate.

Part of the celebration involves gifts.  And on this day, my blogversary, I wanted to share with you a gift that has landed my way.  I have accepted a job offer and will be returning to full-time work status.

Backstory:  I have been consulting for the past year, and I truly enjoy what I do.  However, the life of a consultant is very challenging.  Not everyone has the stomach for it.  For most of my professional life I was a full-timer, a company man — naively thinking of myself as a lifer, hoping to retire from the company after a long career.  The market has taught me to consider consulting too.  And yes, I enjoy it (and dare say I’m pretty good at it).  But there is a certain irony to being passionate about the act of collaboration and at the same time working alone.  And as a family-man, I prefer the security of the full-time salary model.  Even at the expense of the potential windfalls that entrepreneurship may bring.

My new role is with Yahoo!  A fine and well recognized company, brimming with talent. This role will leverage my experience in Enterprise 2.0, but will not be directly related to it as the target of study. E2.0 will be a mindset at my disposal for effective use — the way it should be for many people in companies these days.  I’ll actually spend my time working with the details of Open Source communities.  It is an area that I spent much time in before E2.0 — and one that I wish to revisit with a new perspective.  I believe there is a symbiotic relationship between Open Source and E2.0.   Open Source leverages the power of communities — and proves the idea that you don’t have to be working on the same team or the same company, and yet you can be leveraging a shared community for business purposes.

Successes in the Open Source world inspires E2.0.  And yet, most Open Source projects are dead and desolate.  It’s an irony that I plan to investigate.  Is Open Source about getting free stuff or about giving free stuff?  Either seems to be the path to failure.  I think E2.0 has taught me much about establishing share fate and shared faith that will help me find paths to success as I return to the world to development technology.

I will continue to publish to this blog — perhaps the posts will not be as long or as frequent, and perhaps with a new perspective on things.  But I will continue to report ideas and share thoughts as I see them and invite you to participate in the conversation. I do not plan to use this blog to push my work agenda or to talk about my work projects. I’m sure Yahoo will give me a stage for that. This blog is about us. But as it enters into the second year, it will take on some new flavor. I don’t know what it will be, but I invite you to continue to participate and create it together.

Oh — and congratulate me on getting a great job!